Unevenly ground blade on Ritter mini griptilian

S

SaintZe

Joined
Dec 20, 2013
Messages
361
Hi all,
I recently bought my first Benchmade- a Ritter Mini Griptilian, which I've been carrying regularly for a while now. Recently I decided it was time to put my own edge on it, and in the process I came to realize that the flat grind differs from side to side. I apologize in advance for my descriptions- I'm still a little fuzzy on blade terminology. Anyways, the grind is a little lower on the left side than on the right- see these pictures for details:
mini grind line unmodified 2.jpgmini grind line unmodified.jpg
mini grind line 1.jpgmini grind line 2.jpg
I normally wouldn't care that much, but the lower grind on the right has resulted in a raised lip of metal on the right hand side that prevents me from sharping a centimeter or so of blade, as the lip is much wider than the flat ground portion. I've run it on the sharpmaker at 15 dps per side for long enough to put a very (but not shaving) sharp edge on the rest of the blade and the lip is still present. Is this enough of an issue that Benchmade might replace the blade, or is my best bet to sharpen it down to the correct angle?
 
Unfortunately with your SharpMaker that's a lot of man hours. They sharpen these, (Benchmade techs), on a belt and while good, they make mistakes as anyone would in full production. I would suggest call 800-800-7427 and ask that your blade be replaced or have that blade sharpened correctly.

Here's a link to their 'Lifetime Services' page: http://www.benchmade.com/services/lifetime_services.aspx

Good luck!
 
Honestly that looks pretty normal to me for a factory edge from Benchmade. I've had worse than that, yours actually looks pretty decent.

I wouldn't attempt to sharpen a Benchmade with the Sharpmaker using the 15° (30° inclusive) slots unless you are aiming to reprofile the edge, which will take forever without the diamond rods. You should use the 40° slots, and even then you may have to angle the knife outwards a little to hit the enitire length of edge and not the shoulder. I have to do this with most of my Benchmades as the factory edges seem to hover between 40°-60° inclusive. Also, for me the angle always seem to be steeper near the heel and can vary from side to side.
 
Redmasta said:
Honestly that looks pretty normal to me for a factory edge from Benchmade. I've had worse than that, yours actually looks pretty decent.

I wouldn't attempt to sharpen a Benchmade with the Sharpmaker using the 15° (30° inclusive) slots unless you are aiming to reprofile the edge, which will take forever without the diamond rods. You should use the 40° slots, and even then you may have to angle the knife outwards a little to hit the enitire length of edge and not the shoulder. I have to do this with most of my Benchmades as the factory edges seem to hover between 40°-60° inclusive. Also, for me the angle always seem to be steeper near the heel and can vary from side to side.
Click to expand...

jkarp_53 said:
Unfortunately with your SharpMaker that's a lot of man hours. They sharpen these, (Benchmade techs), on a belt and while good, they make mistakes as anyone would in full production. I would suggest call 800-800-7427 and ask that your blade be replaced or have that blade sharpened correctly.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I think there's been a bit of a miscommunication. I'm not talking about the edge grind- I'm talking about the grind lines of the whole blade. In my second set of photos I made a quick and dirty outline of them- the blade grind line is lower on one side, which given the curving nature of the grind, has resulted in excess metal near the base of the right side of blade, which in turn resulted in a passable, but difficult to sharpen edge.
 
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The main grind looks good to me it's barely off, especially compared to what I've seen from Benchmade. I attached a photo of my 527 for reference, the main grind is much lower on the right than the left. All the ones I looked at were like this. I've sharpened it on my Sharpmaker without issue and the knife works fine so I decided to live with it. I had a Rift with just as bad of an uneven grind. My Benchmades with good grinds look like yours, none are completely perfect. I think even the main grinds are done by hand?

527_grind1_zpsd1c5ec5e.jpg~original
 
I see what you're saying, not the edge but the blade itself; If that's enough to bother you I'd still give them a call.
 
I typically do a 40 degree inclusive on the sharpmaker for Ritter mini-grips, and the grind has never bothered me. But if it does bother you, BM will take good care - either call or email (email takes a while to extract a response).
 
Oh those pesky aesthetic mms.

You stuck my curiosity and I looked at the Benchmades I have in my house. My bros Rift grinds are spot on. He has the same model mini Ritter Grip and they are off but just by a hair.

My 710 off like yours, never even noticed it until you mentioned this. Now the 710's bevel came fairly uneven but it was still sharp and sharpened up nicely.

I wouldn't worry about it unless it was higher end production, mid tech, or custom. YMMV
 
Benchmade will probably replace it for you for the sake of good customer relations (they're pretty good in that regard), but if that type of unevenness bothers you, I'd stay away from Benchmades unless you can look at them first hand. It's not an uncommon aspect.
 
Sorry Sainze, but maybe I am missing something. What is keeping you from sharpening a cm of the blade? Are you taking off the thumb studs?

Like others have said, it looks to me like cosmetic issues. I have had this on a couple BMs. Doesn't bother me. But if it bothers you give BM a call.
 
I'm not really sure what the lip is that we're talking about, but M390 on the Sharpmaker reprofiling to 15 dps? Feet and back hurt yet?

I've got a mini Ritter that I reprofiled to 15 dps back when I had an edge pro, and the main grind was uneven resulting in different sized bevels. I lived with it and use it, and I've handled and sharpened few knives period that had absolutely perfect and even grinds.
 
craytab said:
Sorry Sainze, but maybe I am missing something. What is keeping you from sharpening a cm of the blade? Are you taking off the thumb studs?
Click to expand...

I am taking off the thumbstudes. The main grind is uneven, which has resulted in excess material at the base of the right hand side of the blade, which keeps me from fully sharpening it. I'm less worried about the cosmetic issues and more about how annoying it is to sharpen.
 
Can you take a picture is what you mean by "excess material"? Do you mean a burr from sharpening?
 
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